NASA schedules June 13 Endeavour launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 3 (UPI) -- U.S. space agency managers have selected June 13 as the launch date for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission to the International Space Station.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates are to lift off at 7:17 a.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch date followed completion of a Flight Readiness Review that assessed the risks associated with the mission. Officials determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.
"The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory." NASA said in a statement. "Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space."
The STS-127 crew members are Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and astronauts Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.
NASA said Polansky, who has a Twitter account, can be followed online at http://www.twitter.com/Astro_127.
Liver injury possible from thyroid drug
WASHINGTON, June 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned health care professionals Wednesday of the risk of serious liver injury from the use of an anti-thyroid drug.
"After analyzing adverse event reports, the FDA has identified an increased risk of liver injury with propylthiouracil (commonly known as PTU) when compared to an alternative treatment for Graves' disease, methimazole," Dr. Amy Egan of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said. "Health care professionals should carefully consider which drug to initiate in a patient recently diagnosed with Graves' disease. If PTU therapy is chosen, the patient should be closely monitored for symptoms and signs of liver injury, especially during the first six months after initiating therapy."
PTU was approved for marketing in 1947. The federal agency said it has received notification of 32 cases of serious liver injury associated with the use of the drug since the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System was established in 1969. Of the 22 adult cases, the FDA identified 12 deaths and five liver transplants. Of the 10 pediatric cases, there was one death and six reports of liver transplant.
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder that leads to overactivity of the thyroid gland.
Consequences of coextinctions are studied
RALEIGH, N.C., June 3 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are warning of the possible consequences of coextinctions -- the loss of a species as well as the parasites or mutualists that depend on it.
North Carolina State University biologist Rob Dunn and colleagues said mathematical models suggest coextinctions are very common, yet there have been few reported cases of coextinction in scientific literature.
"Since the diversity of parasitic or affiliated species -- which may include viruses, ticks, lice and bacteria … but also so-called mutualists such as the crops pollinated by honey bees or the bees themselves -- is several orders of magnitude greater than that of their hosts, the numbers of coextinctions are also expected to be far greater than the number of extinctions of host species," he said.
"We have long talked about the negative consequences of the endangerment of the species we love," he said, "but getting left with their parasites is a consequence no one bargained for."
Additionally, Dunn said there is a potentially very dangerous consequence of coextinction.
"There is a distinct possibility that declines in host species could drive parasite species to switch onto alternative hosts, which in turn could escalate the rate of emerging pathogens and parasites both for humans and our domesticated animals and plants."
The study appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Gene regulating neuroblastoma tumors found
RICHMOND, Va., June 3 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have identified a gene that might play a key role in regulating tumor growth in neuroblastomas, a form of cancer found in children.
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers said their finding might lead to an effective therapy to inhibit the expression of the gene.
Professor Paul Fisher and Assistant Professor Seok-Geun Lee, who co-led the research, said their team showed astrocyte elevated gene-1, a cancer promoting gene, is frequently activated in neuroblastoma.
Fisher, Lee and their team found the elevated expression of AEG-1 makes cancer cells highly aggressive and resistant to factors that might influence cell suicide, and loss of the gene reduced the tumor-causing properties of highly aggressive neuroblastoma cells.
"We believe that activation of AEG-1 in addition to MYCN (a known genetic determinant of neuroblastoma that's linked with aggressive tumor formation and poor clinical outcomes) is critical to the development and progression of neuroblastoma," Fisher said. "In addition, we have shown that AEG-1 could be a potential prognostic marker for neuroblastoma and a potential target for novel therapeutic strategies for neuroblastoma patients."
The study, which included Dr. Van Maerken of Ghent University Hospital in Belgium, is reported in the May issue of the journal Oncogene.
